Feliz compleaños

tropical storm

for the last four days it has been raining solid.  And, the rain is supposed to last for another 2 to 3 days.  All of Guatemala is under a tropical storm.  The problem is mudslides, the ground is soaked with water and areas that do not have lots of foliage are dangerous.  Also, the rivers are raging and the streets in the cities in the low lands are like rivers.  Our cities are so are OK since everything is on a hill.  It is very hard to find many flat places.  We were scheduled to travel to a low land city and were advised not to.  And, the schools are closed.

  Most of the houses have either steel or fiberglass corrugated roofs.  The noise of the rain hitting on the roof is unbelievable.  The air is cold and inside any house is uncomfortable cold, remember we have no heaters.

 Given all of that, our brave missionaries are armed with their umbrellas and are working.  We again say, we are so very impressed with missionaries.

Coming Home

We are happy to announce that we have a return date, August 20th.  Or normal return date was September 17th, but, we got approval to move it up a few weeks so that we could be home for our 51st anniversary. We had our 50th here last year and we did nothing. (keep in mind we were about 10 years old when we got married)

The interruption

We visit the missionaries in their homes in the mornings.  We study with them for a little while.  This helps to understand their needs, and, lets them know that we are interested in them and their studies.  So, we visited a pair a few days ago.  And the discussion was really spiritual.  So, Gary has a stomach problem, he has had it for a month or two.  While we were discussing spiritual things his stomach lets out a gigantic growl ruining a wonderful meeting.

Crying Lady at the baptism

We try to attend all the baptisms.   We attended a baptism of two young buys.  The families of these boy are very poor.  After most baptisms, food is served.  We had an appointment that we had to get to after the baptism concluded.  A lady brought food to us first.  We said we could not stay and had to leave.  Tears came to her eyes.  We left but we will never do that again.  The tradition here is to serve guests food no matter how poor you are.  And, Gary being a president makes it worse.

Birthday

We went to a zone meeting on Thursday.   We walked into the church building and a missionary said they were having the meeting in another room than usual.   We walked into the room and there was a big surprise party for Gary.  Tables all set, breakfast, cake, happy birthday song, and a card with lots of nice comments written on it  We were humbled and very appreciative.

Our Friends

Last night we joined are friends at a really nice restaurant.   Miguel and Cicely have been so helpful to us and we have become close friends.  We had yet another birthday meal and it was fabulous.  We were talking to them about a lady that recently got baptized but has no idea how to be a mother.  She leaves her boys, one is about 9 and the little brother is about 6, all day by themselves.   The boys are very disobedient and destructive.   Everyone simply cannot be around them.   The older boy a few months ago was in Miguel and Cicely’s house and was caught stealing anything he could put in his pocket.  Well, now, Miguel and Cicely hired the older boy to work a few hours a day at their house and they have loved these boys and the boys love them and they are improving.  We are one of the many people that could not stand these kids.  We were so impressed by what Miguel and Cicely are doing.  They are truly doing what the Savior would do!    We have learned some important lessons from Miguel and Cicely.

Here are some pictures:

BIRTHDAY 

Miguel and Cicely

The Catholic School

Tejutla

Last Sunday we went to a small town called Tejutla.  It is about an hour and a half away further in the mountains.   We went to attended a baptism followed by church.   The building is a very small branch building made quite a long time ago.   The front of the two room buildings contains the pulpit, sacrament table and another table.  These are on a raised floor that extends across the room and is about 6 inches high.   Where is the font was our question as we drove up.  We had been here before and we did not see a font.  When we arrived to our surprise, the pulpit and the two table had been moved off the raised floor, and, the raised floor was folded up revealing the baptismal font.  The baptism went well, a teenage girl.

Before sacrament meeting, the young president, a young man, and myself prepared the sacrament.  The president had a bottle water and carefully filled each cup to exactly the same level.  He got out a bread roll that he had brought himself and carefully arranged the sacrament.   This president does not live in this area.  He lives in another branch about a half an hour away.  He was called as president here because there was no worthy priesthood in this branch.   

We sat by him on the stand and noticed his carefully prepared agenda.  He has no counselors or secretary.   As he was conducting the meeting we noticed his jacket was frayed and torn, his shoes were old, worn, and dirty.  He was wearing the white shirt we gave him as a gift months ago.  But, he conducted the meeting with reverence and respect.   On the way home, we talked about the dedication of this young man.  He is very poor, but, every Sunday pays for the bus back and forth to Tejutla, and buys the bread.   We felt it a blessing to be with him.

The after-meeting-food culture.

We attended a baptism of two young boys from a small branch.   After the meeting, as usual, the sisters serve a hot drink and a tostado smeared with smashed black beans.  We usually always eat the food but this time we had to go somewhere.   A young mother brought us drinks,  we said thank you but we had to leave.  As we stood in front of her, tears begin to swell up in her eyes.  We left, and we have felt bad ever since.  The culture here is, no matter how poor you are you serve food to the guests.  We will not refuse good again.

Bling

Just a small note about Kathy.   We were walking around in town and Kathy said we have to go home,  I have to go to the bathroom really bad!  We were walking fast to get to the car and we passed a "bling" store.  You know, bracelets, rings, etc, all fake jewelry.  Believe it or not, Kathy stooped, went in to the shop, and enjoyed looking and feeling the bling.  What happened to the bathroom thing!!

The catholic school

Some missionaries were walking around and walked by a catholic sponsored school.   The director came out and told the missionaries that they were having lots of issues with families, and, they knew that our church was the best family oriented church and she wondered if the missionaries would come Friday and teach about families for a few hours.   Wow!  What an opportunity.  We were involved, I showed "Mormon message" videos and Kathy set up a display of pictures of our children and their families with silver ribbon leading from the pictures to one of her paintings of the temple and attached to the top of the temple picture was one of her paintings of the Savior.  Well, what a wonderful time, we were treated so very nice and we feed lunch and invited back for next months activity.

Here are some pictures.

This is Gary at his favorite place when we travel to a town called Xela.

THE GREAT DATE TEST

Blog  5/25/24

Sorry that we have not added to our blog for some time.   Our president has given us this difficult assignment that we have mentioned before: to get the mission applications completed four young people from poor families that live in isolated areas.   We have managed to get the applications all completed but the dentist.  And the cost of the dentist is a big problem and we are now ready to  visit our third dentist to see if we can get a better cost.  Then, Kathy fell down while we were walking.  We were blest that we were holding on to each other.  She caught herself with one hand and Gary held onto the other.  She was not hurt badly but it scarred us a bit since any serious damage here and we are probably on our way home.   With trust in The Lord, we are lost in the work and generally having a wonderful time.

When we spend more than a few minutes with the missionaries we ask them what their plans are when they get home. (Many of the missionaries in our area have only a few months left.)  and, are conversation usually come around to getting married.  We ask them what do they want in a spouse.  Almost every missionary has some sort of test to give to potential spouses.  One elder, a great missionary and we love him, has a seven hour test laid out for his unsuspecting date.  He takes them for dinner or entertainment that takes them for a long trip.   During the trip he fakes a car breakdown.  And he understands how well she handles emergencies during the stressful Time of a breakdown.  Kathy told him that if her date faked a car breakdown, she would never see him again.  Several elders want their date to let them open their car door for them.   And several sisters will wait in the car until their date opens the door.  However, many of the sisters are looking for looks and a man that can make a good living.

Anyway, these conversations are very entertaining.

In the last two days we have been to a marriage and 5 baptisms.  And, Gary had to give a presentation in three of them.  It was a wonderful experience.

We arrived in this little town for the marriage at the time it was supposed to start, 10a.  It didn't start until noon.  Which sets a new record for lateness!  We have a young girl that is almost a lawyer and she can marry.  We got the marriage finally done and then the baptism of the bride.  (The groom was inactive because he was living with the girl, but now she is a member and they are both active ).  Generally speaking the people we deal with have nothing to do with getting into water, like to swim for example.  So, the elder and the lady get in the font, the lady is heavier then him, he baptizes her ok but while bringing her out of the water he loses his grip and she goes back down and about drowns!  She comes coughing and crying, but, she got through it.

Today, a young teenage girl got baptized and all went well.   She bore her testimony and it was very touching a knowledgeable.   Later, we met her to congratulate her.  We both said at different times.  "You will be a great member"  but, with our "not perfect yet" Spanish, we actually said that she would be a huge or big member!  She pointed out our error and we said it correctly.

Here is a picture of the almost lawyer

Here is a picture of the married couple

And other baptisms 

Proverbs 28:25

Well, we were studying Preach My Gospel, and, we ran into a scripture that pretty much describes our mission, 

He that is of a proud heart stirreth up strife: but he that putteth his trust in the LORD shall be made fat.

We have really had to put our trust in The Lord , and, yes we are fat.

We are almost constantly sick with stomach pains and other related issues.   We blamed it on parasites.   But, we have concluded our problem is not parasites.   We are just suffering from food poisoning!   We decided that we will probably have food poisoning two or three times a week and we just need to endure it.   We think the culprit is mayonnaise.   Here, mayo is not refrigerated.  Big vats of it are on shelves in every eating place.  If you order French fries, they will come smothered with ketchup and mayo, and with a toothpick to pick up the fries.  We now just order our fries with ketchup and a side of salmonella.

We found a jar of pickles in another town at a walmart.   Now, the nortes ( North American missionaries) really miss pickles because generally they are not to be found anywheres (by the way there was only one bottle at the store).  We keep this bottle in reserve because we can barter it for almost anything including indentured servitude!

We drove to another town to attend a meeting hosted by the area 70, president Morales.  All of the stake presidencies were invited and us, the mission presidency.  It was a priesthood meeting so Kathy had to wait in another room of the Church.  (We obey the missionary manual all except for emailing once a week.  We have to communicate with our kids more that once a week because of all the normal issues of a family, but we are almost always are in site of each other and we do almost everything together.  So, we went to this meeting together.)  the area 70 "blasted" the stake president about lost sheep.  For example, one stake has 1200 names of people baptized but have no idea where they are.  With all of that, the spirit the area 70 brought was wonderful.  He is a leader close to a God.  In one minute he is reproving the Stake presidents and the next minute he is reading a scripture and crying.  It was a great experince.  We had a break and gary asked him if we could leave early because we do not drive great in the dark.  It is a three hour very hard drive home.  He said no problem and gave gary a Big hug.  Thanking him for his Service.   It is nice to be appreciated.

We asked our president if we could leave for home About 3 weeks early.  We want to be home for our 51st anniversary since we were here in Guatemala for our supposedly very important 50th anniversary. Then, we got to feeling guilty.  Maybe we were pushing our will and not the Lords will.  So, Kathy said, get word to the president that going home early was just our request,  but, we want to do the lords will even if it ment extending,   This happened in the morning.   In the afternoon Gary noticed that Kathy was really disturbed.  He finally got her to tell him her feelings.   She was un-repenting from our repentance earlier in the day.   She was fighting the conflict between doing the lords will and wanting to go home, and never to extend our mission.  We decided that we would trust in The Lord that he would realize all the hard work we have done and send us home for a reward.

Fair

Small miracles  4/21/14

We were called about 7pm this evening.  The zone leaders have come up with a plan to get their church members to trust them more.  They are going to make butter finger cookies.   Well, like most missionary plans, they were missing a pan to cook them in, paper plates to serve them with, seran wrap to cover the plates, and two key ingredients:  chocolate sauce and peanut butter.  They wanted us to buy and deliver these things.  We were able to buy the plates and the wrap, but peanut butter is very hard to find here and the store we were at was out of chocolate syrup.  So, we walked to the market place, knowing fulwell we would not find these items, but we had to try.  We walked into this tiny store.  It had plastic goods, Easter baskets, all kind of very strange stuff.  We walked around to the only other isle and there on the bottom shelf were a gigantic bottle of planters peanut butter and right with the peanut butter, a gigantic bottle of chocolate sauce.  We said to each other, it's a little miricle to help the missionaries with their project.

Doctors and dentists  4/22/14

We have been given the assignment to help young members that want to go on missions to get their applications done.   We have to get there applications completed before June.   We have three: two boys and a girl.    Now, this may seem like a really simple task, but, these young people live way up in the mountains, have no money and no resources.

We have had this assignment for several weeks and have been pondering and praying about where to find a doctor and dentist that will do the exams for free or at a big discount.  And, one of the boys has major problems with his teeth.  They look like a train wreck!   And, we have a few other pre-missionaries that have completed the application and have their call but must have inoculations before they can go.  Like, yellow fever vaccine. 

Today, we were so blessed.  A friend of ours took us to her brother, a doctor, and he ageed to do the exams for free!   We found out that the local firehouse will give yellow fever shots for about $6.  (We went to our pharmacy and simply asked for yellow fever vaccine, no problem, the assistant just brought out these little viles, we could buy for about $70.)  and, we found a dentist.  So, as usual, after a trial of our faith, we were blessed.

Bargaining   4/23/14

We have picked up an intersting skill here in Guatemala, bargaining.  Almost everything we buy, we bargain for a better price.  At home, Kathy did a little bit of bargaining at TJ MAX, Gary, just hated to bargain.   Well, here we really have learned to enjoy bargaining.  People look at us as rich gringos.   We tell them right off we are very poor missionaries and we won't accept a 'tourist price".  Or, we plead with them that they must give a lower price for missionaries.   We always pay less and the whole bargaining session is great fun.  Gary is concerned, however, that, when he gets home, he will offer the clerk at walmart a lower amount then the register says.

The fair

There is a fair going on here.   It seems to be great fun for everyone.  One of our zones decided to have an activity associated with the fair, since, the stake center is virtually right next to the fair. The missionaries made cookies and popcorn and had pamphlets and Books of Mormon all displayed on tables.  The sister missioneries did face painting, they had several other games set up, and Kathy did painting.  Kathy painted a picture and we offered copies of the picture to those that would give us contact information.  Overall, the missionaries got lots of references.

Our new car is named Krueger, we love her but she is quit underpowered.  We were in a little town today that had steep hills.  We turned a tight corner and we were in front of a car.  We had to back up the hill a little ways then turn tight and go gown the hill.  We put krueger in reverse and is all she could do is groan.  No movement.  We had two big elders in the back and they got out.  Still could not move.  Finally, the big elders had to push us back up the hill.  If it were not for them, we could still be there!  We know krueger felt bad, but that is all she could do.   In the future, we will not get into places that we have to back up hills!

AMERICAN BREAKFAST

The missioneries told the relief society president of a local ward that Kathy made a wonderful American breakfast.  So, we get contacted by the relief society.  They want Kathy to do a demonstration on how to make an American breakfast.   We buy all this food and haul our pans, food, oil, etc to the ward house.  The ward house kitchen is about the size of a large closet.  Kathy is cooking French toast, omelettes, hash browns, and bacon.   She is cooking away with 25 sisters crammed into this little room.  They all had note books and took notes and photos.  It was a great time.  A few strange things:  Kathy made the French toast first, then the omelettes.  The sisters would not serve the anything until they had all the plates ready to serve everyone.  So we had plates stacked everywhere.   And, they will not use napkins.  It just is not in the culture.  However, the experience was wonderful.

We were invited to talk about marriage to a family along with the missioneries.   We brought our computer with the DVD "together forever".  The family joined the church in October.   Previously, they fought a lot and the man was losing his temper.  After joining the church, they were ok for a while but now the were ready to split up.  So, we really felt the spirit with us. We showed the vidioe and both of us bore our testimonies about marriage.  We told them about us before and after our being converted to the church, our temple marriage with two little children, and over the years we were taught in the church and with the Holy Ghost about how to have a happy family.    They listened intently and the spirit was wonderful and we did our best.  We hope and pray they make it.

We attended church this Sunday in a little branch way up in the mountains.   These are amazing members.  Very dedicated and temple attenders.   The district president was there.  President Ochoa.  A wonderful man.  It was testimony meeting.   We gave our testimonies, and, so did the president.  President broke down in tears with weight of his calling.  It was a very tender moment.  After the meeting, we talked to him and we took on several of the issues he was worried about.  We drove home with a testimony in our hearts that we were called here for a purpose.

We got a call Saturday morning by missioneries that were preparing for a baptism.  The water pump for the fount was broken and they could not fill the fount.  We told them to call the bombaderos, fireman, to come and fill the faunt.  They called them and arranged for them to fill the faunt.  We drove over to make sure it worked ok and to pay the fireman.   The fire truck came, with the hose through the  window, they filled the faunt.  And we paid them about $50.  Later we attended the baptism.  A ten year old girl was baptized in freezing cold water.  But, she was such a sweet little girl and was so excited.  Only a few people attended.  The ward has major problems.  The new bishop and his family was ther and the bishop gave a talk.  After the baptism, we gave the little girl a hug and gave her a picture of the Savior with a note on the back reminding her of her baptismal commitments.  Hand painted by Kathy.  (We give these to all the people that get baptized).  The bishop is very overwhelmed and he thanked us over and over for supporting him.  Just doing our job.

Here are pictures.

REAR VIEW MIRRORS

We had a quiet week, so not much to report.

However, we used to think that rear view mirrors on cars, the ones that stick out from the sides of the car, were for allowing us to see what was behind us.  But here, no.   Their main purpose is to tell the driver he is too close to the car next to him because the rear view mirror got hit and it was folded over.  When you get in the clear, you just push the mirror back into place.  This method of measuring how close your car is to another car, also applies to people.    We get our rear view mirror hit several times a week.  It used to be exciting, but now, it's just Guatemala.

We loved conference.  So much applied to us missionaries.   We all cheered when president Armada talked.  He is from Guatemala and we have spent time with him.  He is a wonderful, gentle man.

Only problem with conference here is that we watch it on the only English speaking TV in a small room with steel folding chairs.  10 hours on a steel chair.   Gary's butt still hurts.  By the way, we all are asked to watch conference in our native language.

We love ou mission!   Serving The Lord full time is an amassing experience.   We survive solely on obedience, prayer, and inspiration.  We are anxious to return home but we are worried about getting "back in the world".   Will we become the "slugs" we were before!!

It is p-day and here is Kathy painting.   She only paints on p-day.  What does Gary do, well,  the bills of course.  We still have a house at home to handle.